Configuring Apache

Install Apache

Log in as root, uncompress the Apache files and go to the installation folder.

# gzip -d httpd-2.2.8.tar.gz

# tar -xvf httpd-2.2.8.tar

# cd httpd-2.2.8

Adapt the Environment Variables to make sure the correct gcc and make are used.

# export PATH=$PATH:/usr/sfw/bin:/usr/ccs/bin:.

Configure and make Apache:

# make clean --> only if necessary

# ./configure \

--prefix=/usr/local/apache2 \

--with-included-apr

# make

# make install

In order to increase performance edit the following in the httpd.conf file:

# vi /usr/local/moodle_1.9+/moodle/httpd.conf -- > opens text editor

DirectoryIndex index.php

Listen 8002 -- > for VDAB

DocumentRoot “/usr/local/moodle_1.9+/moodle”

AcceptPathInfo on

If you're running Moodle on Oracle with Apache on Linux, you might have issues with PHP being able to see the system environment variables. To resolve this, you can edit /etc/sysconfig/apache2 and add the following lines to the bottom:

Install PHP

Log in as root, uncompress the PHP files and go to the installation folder.

# gzip -d php-5.2.5.tar.gz

# tar -xvf php-5.2.5.tar

# cd php-5.2.5

Adapt the Environment Variables to make sure the correct gcc and make are used.

# export PATH=$PATH:/usr/sfw/bin:/usr/ccs/bin

# export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/oracle/product/instantclient_10_2

The following table provides a brief overview of the PHP extensions and what they are used for. All of these are required to do a fully functional Moodle installation.

PHP Extensions

Description

GD

Freetype 2

GD is commonly used to generate charts, graphics, thumbnails, etc. on the fly.

Freetype provides an API to manipulate fonts.

Moodle uses these modules to generate dynamic graphs from the logs.

OCI8

Required connector for Oracle

zlib (alternatively use zip or unzip)

Zlib is required for zip/unzip funcitonality based on the deflate compression method.

Moodle itself can also handle this functionality, but this impacts the use of server resources.

curl

curl is a client to get files from servers. It is used for handling files using a wide variety of protocols.

This is a requirement for Moodle 1.8 and later

openssl

Library to enable secured connections to a server. This is mainly used for connections between Moodle installations e.g. to share courses.

php5-LDAP

Enables the use of LDAP functions in PHP

aspell-xx

The optional aspell modules provide a free spelling checker functionality embedded in Moodle. This module support a very large number of languages. XX represents the 2-letter code for the language.

For a default Solaris most of these modules are available by default. We only need to install curl and enable these modules in the Apache-Php configuration.

We first install curl. Download the package curl-7.18.1.tar.gz from http://curl.haxx.se to /usr/local/apache2.

Log in as root, uncompress the curl files and go to the installation folder to make and install.

# gunzip curl-7.18.1.tar.gz

# tar -xvf curl-7.18.1.tar

# cd curl-7.18.1

# ./configure

# make

# make install

In order to test the curl installation do

/usr/local/bin/curl -V

If necessary, extend PATH to /usr/local/bin. This was not necessary for VDAB.

Next, we will configure, and install the PHP for Apache make links to the PHP extensions.

# cd /usr/local/apache2/php-5.2.5

# ./configure \

--with-apxs2=/usr/local/apache2/bin/apxs \

--with-config-file-path=/usr/local/apache2/conf \

--with-oci8=instantclient,/oracle/product/instantclient_10_2 \

--enable-sigchild \

--enable-mbstring \

--with-gd \

--with-openssl \

--with-curl=/usr/local/apache2/curl-7.18.1

--with-ldap=/usr/local

# make

# make install

Change PHP settings

By default there is no php.ini file. However, there is a php.ini-recommended which we will use to make the required adaptations listed in the table below. Afterwards we will make a copy of this file and make it the active Php configuration file.

# vi /usr/local/apache2/conf/php.ini-recommended --> Open text editor and make adaptations

Add GNU Coreutils

Also install the GNU Coreutils for Solaris in order to avoid Apache error described in case MDL-6850 . The Coreutils will include the du command which is required by Moodle to collect and calculate data on file sizes.

If desired you can install other languages during the installation wizard by downloading the appropriate language files e.g. Dutch (http://download.moodle.org/lang16/nl_utf8.zip) to /usr/local/moodle_1.9+/moodledata/lang and uncompress the file.

# unzip nl_utf8.zip

A list of additional languages is available from the administration interface. Moodle then automatically downloads and installs the selected languages.

Choose installation language

Choose the installation language from the drop-down list. This choice only applies to the installation wizard.

Click the next button to continue.

Check PHP settings

If you followed the above mentioned instructions for php, you should get the following screen.

In case of a Fail, recheck the PHP settings in php.ini.

Set installation and data directories

In this step you define the basic locations of all Moodle-related files. Unless you chose a different location for the moodledata folder you do not need to change anything.

It is adviseable to keep the Moodle software and the data (courses, uploaded assignments etc.) separately;

In case of VDAB the web address is e.g. testzone2 or testzone3 and the data directory is /usr/local/moodle_1.9+/moodle

Set Database connection

In this step we will set up the connection to the database:

Select Oracle from the drop-down list

For an Oracle installation, leave the Host entry empty

Provide the name of the Oracle database you created e.g. moodle

The database admin username and password

Add a table prefix e.g. m_

Server checks for installed components

The installation wizard will now perform an availability check on the required System Components.

If you checked all the required PHP settings and modules during the pre-installation phase, you should get the following screen.

Install language packs

Since we chose a Dutch installation, we now get an option to download the Dutch language files for the user interface. Provided you have direct write access to the Moodle server, the set-up of the language pack is automatic.

File:Image006.jpgIf the download is unsuccessful, you will get the error message below. To resolve this problem, you can either:

Select other languages by using the Administrator interface when the installation is complete (Administration > Language > Language packs).

Unzip the language file on the server in the lang files directory e.g. <path to Moodle directory>/moodledata/lang

Confirmation for written configuration file.

All the settings we made in prior steps are now collected and written to the Moodle configuration file (config.php).

In this step, the basic Moodle configuration is complete. In the next steps, the setup will add the database tables and prepare Moodle for use.

Licence agreement

Carefully read and accept the licence agreement before proceeding to the final installation steps.

Release information

This page provides the release information and the possibility to perform the following steps automatically (unattended). We will simply click next in order to capture potential setup errors.

Following steps can be performed automatically (unattended) or with manual confirmation.

Automatic database setup

What follows is a series of screens for the setup of the database tables for all of the standard Moodle components. Apart from clicking next, no user interaction is required.

After each sequence a confirmation of success appears.

This is the final step in the database set-up sequence.

Setting up the administrator account

Now that the system is ready, we only need to provide details for an initial administrator account.

These data can be changed and/or complemented later. This is the account that will initially be used after installation to allow further configuration of the system.

Set up Frontpage

During this final step of the installation wizard, we will put:

The Full site name e.g. the name of the institution. This will be visible in the title bar in all of the standard templates.

As Short name for the site.

A Front page description of the site. This will be displayed as a welcome message on the start page.

Start with empty Moodle

We are then automatically redirected to the Moodle start page. Our Moodle is up and running and we can now continue with the configuration of the system.

When we click Turn editing on we can start the configuration. We will need to verify the system location of some additional components. The installation procedure does not check for the availability of a zip program. Moodle especially needs zip and unzip when handling SCORM packages. Using the built-in unzip feature may impact server performance.